Blood Feud

The Clintons Vs. the Obamas

In this highly anticipated follow-up to his blockbuster The Amateur , former New York Times Magazine editor-in-chief Edward Klein delves into the rocky relationship between the Obamas and the Clintons. An old-school reporter with incredible insider contacts, Klein reveals just how deep the rivalry between the Obamas and the Clintons runs, with details on closed-door meetings buttressed by hundreds of interviews. Blood Feud is a stunning exposé of the animosity, jealousy, and competition between America's two most powerful political couples.

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The Clintons and Obamas hated and feared one another. Klein's Obamas seem worse. When the Clintons made cynical deals, they performed. The Obamas got what they wanted and reneged.
--- The Clintons had sponsored Barack in 2004, but Michelle blamed Hillary for criticizing a Black Senator while in college. Michelle and arch-crony Valerie Jarrett urged Barack to use any trick against the Clintons.
--- Hillary broke her pledge against self-gain at the State Dept. For years she hid serious health problems and facelifts.
--- Michelle bullied Barack, claiming women are smarter then men. When they traveled, he sometimes put her on a separate plane. With Michelle's vacations, and $102K yearly for dog care, the annual cost of the Obamas was over 24 times that of the British royal family.
--- Barack was quite secretive, his smoking one of several concealments. He hid Obamacare problems and pretended that Muslim attacks were not terrorism which he had failed to stop. He relied on Michelle, Valerie, and campaign advisers, not cabinet members. He assumed he would get his way and was loath to compromise. He finally quit pretending, and ruled through executive order.
--- The Obamas often sought help, but rarely gave any. They easily forgot their benefactors (eg Clintons, Oprah, Caroline Kennedy).
--- Hillary referred to Barack as "the motherf_____". She once jabbed him painfully with her finger. (She had cut Bill's face with thrown objects.) Barack refused to meet her alone, fearing violence.
--- In 2014 Hillary spoke of historians yet unborn who would study her presidency.
--- Klein says our Benghazi office was a cover for arms shipments to anti-Assad terrorists. The CIA was responsible for security, not Hillary. But Barack managed to shift blame for the debacle to her. He ordered her to spread the lie that an anti-Muslim video had caused it. She refused, but later had to vouch for it, once snapping, "What difference does it make?" Blame for the whole affair fell on her. (This analysis is contradicted in Hillary's book HARD CHOICES. Klein blames Assad for resisting US-armed terrorists, and blames Barack for not risking war with Russia in Syria as Hillary wanted.)
--- Bill Clinton resented Barack's accusation of racism in 2008. He urged Hillary to run against him in 2012, but she feared to offend party leaders. Next Bill (and Valerie) urged Barack to make Hillary his 2012 running mate. Barack refused: he liked and trusted Biden. Bill decided to campaign for Barack in return for support for Hillary in 2016. Bill thought his efforts won the 2012 election, and was angry when Barack would not endorse Hillary later. Barack feared she would run against his record, and doubted she could win. He urged Biden to run.
--- Klein's 2014 assessment proved correct: Barack did not endorse Hillary till Sanders was mathematically eliminated.

There are some truths in this book like the fact that Obama is not loyal to his supporters (e.g., the way he treated Oprah and his long-time minister), but in general Edward Klein hates both the Obamas and Clintons and he has done everything here to paint an ugly picture of Barack. Go elsewhere if you want a more fair and balanced picture.

This book talks about the rocky relationship between two most powerful political families in the U.S in general and the democrats in particular. The Clintons played a huge role in the re-election of Barack Obama to the presidency in 2012. Was there a tacit agreement that in return, Obama would back Hilary for the democratic ticket in 2016? If there was, did he renege on that promise? Is that the cause of the feud, or is it just the heightening of the tensions? That two such dissimilar families had to be nice to one another may itself have been responsible for the animosity. Edward Klein has done a great job of laying out the incidents that led to the feud and that continue to keep the antipathy a part of the equation. For me this book was a page-turner.

CoachKleats
Jul 26, 2014

A great read, not to be
missed.

bdemian
Jul 22, 2014

Another stupid hatchet job by this notoriously slanderous hack with few facts with which to back up his wild assertions and attributions.